WARNING: The Following contains major spoilers for It: Welcome to Derry episode five.
As promised in last week’s installment of It: Welcome to Derry, episode five, “29 Neibolt Street,” not only takes us inside the notorious house, but also into the sewers below. Though Hallorann (Chris Chalk) and team may arrive via the house’s namesake well, Derry’s youngest avengers enter with a surprising guide. While strategizing in their Standpipe clubhouse, Matty Clements (Miles Ekhardt) emerges from a nearby tent. Presumed dead for months, he claims to have escaped the murderous clown and balks at leading them back to his lair. Matty claims that while Phil (Jack Molloy Legault) may still be alive, his dead sister Susie (Matilda Legault) is missing an arm.
This grim detail nods to one of the most disturbing scenes in Stephen King’s vast catalogue. His 1986 novel, It, opens with young Georgie Denbrough meeting a devilish clown through a sewer grate. When he reaches in to retrieve his paper boat, the shapeshifting nightmare rips off his arm. The child bleeds to death in the rainy street, kicking off the literary 1957-58 cycle.
Despite the child murders rocking the town, we learn that the 1962 cycle (see director Andy Muschietti’s revised timeline as explained in our recap of episode one) has actually been lighter than predicted. Unfortunately, the worst is yet to come. We’re reminded that each cycle ends with a mass casualty event, foreshadowing a deadly fire at the Black Spot nightclub that Hallorann and his friends are currently restoring. Fans of King’s novel know that each cycle also begins with a particularly shocking act of violence. The 1958 series begins with the aforementioned death of little Georgie, while the present-day deaths begin with the hate-fueled murder of Adrian Mellon. While these gruesome scenes loom large in our collective memories, we often forget the fourth Interlude. King concludes these literary tales of terror with the Sleepy Silver Dollar “cutting party” that begins the dreaded 1905 cycle.
Amanda Christine, Miles Ekhardt, Clara Stack, Blake Cameron James, Arian S. Cartaya, Matilda Lawler. Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO
Originally a logging town, turn-of-the-century Derry is consumed with labor disputes and calls for unionization. When a prominent organizer and his friends are killed in a grisly warning to the rest of the workers, the incident’s sole survivor, a Canadian named Claude Heroux, exacts an unthinkable revenge. Months after the murders, he emerges from the woods and drags an ax into the crowded pub, proceeding to chop four men to pieces. “29 Neibolt Street” may reference this horrific scene with a new bulletin snippet describing an arrest, “… for trying to chop one of its legs with an ax.” While we don’t yet know who wields this infamous weapon nor the identity of their victim, this ominous report bears a striking resemblance to Heroux’s ghastly crimes.
Though admittedly unnerving, this sequence is all the more horrific for playing out in full view of a crowded bar. Mike’s witness claims that everyone there knew exactly what was happening, but saw no need to get involved. This egregious apathy is a trademark of the strangely sinister town. We’ve seen bullies attack a young man on the street, with Charlotte (Taylour Paige) the only one to intervene, and King’s novel is filled with examples of adults ignoring extreme acts of cruelty and violence. In “29 Neibolt Street,” Muscietti gives us a possible explanation for this disregard. As Shaw (James Remar) prepares his ill-conceived raid, we learn that, having nested in the town’s sewer system, It may be excreting some chemical discharge that sinks into the city’s groundwater, slowly poisoning the residents. As adults, they would have experienced cumulative exposure, explaining their increased obviousness with age.
Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO
In addition to this dangerous indifference, we get a taste of the town’s violent streak as Hank (Stephen Rider) is sent to Shawshank Penitentiary. While loading the prison bus, Chief Bowers (Peter Outerbridge) mentions a “fish” who didn’t last the week, referencing a heartbreaking scene from the cinematic adaptation of King’s 1982 novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. Frank Darabont brings this brutal prison to life in his 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption when a group of new inmates spend their first night in “the stir.” Longtimers routinely call these new arrivals “fish” and pass the time by betting on who will be the first to cry out in despair. When one poor man becomes the “winner,” head guard Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown) arrives to administer a brutal beating that will prove to be fatal. Chief Bowers’ cutting remark hints at this harrowing scene and reminds us what lies in store for Hank.
Fortunately, a mysterious attack on the prison bus allows his escape, and he seeks refuge in the car of his secret lover. We’ve met this attractive woman, a housekeeper at Juniper Hill, to whom Lilly (Clara Stack) has turned for comfort and wisdom. Questioning whether the gang should enter the sewers, she shows up on her friend’s doorstep, and we finally learn the woman’s name. Lilly has grown close to Ingrid Kersh (Madeleine Stowe), wife of Derry’s genial butcher. But rather than a friendly face, Stan (Larry Day) coldly acknowledges Lilly from the shadows of his living room, then cruelly warns his wife not to burn his dinner. Considering this disturbing interaction, it’s no wonder Ingrid has sought comfort in the arms of another man.
Clara Stack. Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO
While ominous on its face, this revelation alludes to a more shocking connection. We will meet Mrs. Kersh as an older woman when adult Loser Beverly Marsh returns to her childhood home. Outwardly kind, she invites Beverly in for tea, then slowly becomes more monstrous. Muschietti’s disturbing scene in It: Chapter 2 sees Mrs. Kersh (Joan Gregson) freeze for a protracted beat before reemerging from the kitchen as a naked and rapidly growing ghoul. King’s version tracks an uncomfortable conversation in which Bev’s tea turns to muddy sludge and the woman transforms into an old hag, similar to the witch from Hansel and Gretel. Before chasing Bev away with obscenities, she mentions her “fadder,” Robert Gray — better known as Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgård). If Ingrid Kersh is somehow related to Pennywise, her relationship with Hank may not be a love affair but part of the year’s deadly cycle.
While Hank is searching for safety, Hallorann is putting himself in danger. Having entered the sewers through the well, he finds himself transported into a memory. Climbing out of a metaphysical bathtub, Hallorann is shocked to see his grandmother standing next to him as ominous footsteps approach the closed door. In King’s 2013 novel Doctor Sleep, we learn that Hallorann was sexually abused as a child by his paternal grandfather. Relieved when the man finally died, he was horrified to find his grandfather’s naked ghost waiting for him after the funeral. Thankfully, Hallorann’s grandmother was able to teach him to sequester this spirit in a mental lockbox along with any others who would pose a threat.
Now overwhelmed by Pennywise’s terrible power, Hallorann is unable to stop his long-dead grandfather from prying open the box’s lock. Presumably releasing the lecherous spirit along with any other “bad shines” trapped inside, the episode’s final image hints at something more dire. The open lockbox glows with the same yellowish hue we see in Pennywise’s eyes, possibly signaling an escalation in the Entity’s power.
For more on It:Welcome to Derry, check out episode by episode coverage from Bloody FM’s The Losers’ Club: A Stephen King Podcast.
Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO
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